The Voice
by Teenage Mouse
Summary: Astronaut Alfred F. Jones goes into space for 18 months. While he is up there, he gets to know a voice that talks to him through his earpiece. Should he let himself fall in love or will The Voice disappoint him when he gets back to Earth?


~ The Voice ~

There was an uncommon amount of sentimentality on the Launch Pad today. Alfred had assumed that families would say goodbye to each other in private rooms, but obviously not. The other men had waved across the ditch to their children, and now were showing their wives around the pad. Although there was much less "showing around" and way more "excessive amounts of PDA" for Alfred's tastes.

Maybe they just couldn't bear to be parted until the very last moment, and the higher ups had decided to indulge them. They were usually pretty strict and technical about…well, everything. It was odd for them to give in to something so human. He would have thought that would put them off being lenient even more than usual.

He didn't have anyone, himself. No one there to see him off, to break down or even tear up at the thought of him leaving. He had some people he was friendly with, sure, and everyone liked him because he was a nice guy. But he had always been too busy with this, too focused on making his dreams come true to have time to spare for anyone else. He didn't feel too bad about it. He could do all that stuff later, be just like everyone eventually. But unlike everyone else, he would be able to say "I once looked out my window and saw the whole earth."

Major Alfred F. Jones was going into space. The thought lifted him higher than his rocket would, and he was glad he had no family or friends dragging the moment down. He glanced at the other astronauts, all sad because they had to go. How could they be _sad_ now? This was the greatest moment of their lives!

Alfred stood alone, amidst a crowd of embracing families and busy NASA employees, having been told to wait here with the others even though he was out of place.

He shifted uncomfortably, not liking how the usually serious, controlled, comforting, liberating atmosphere of his work environment had suddenly turned into a scene from a corny made for TV movie…

"Major Jones," said a hushed voice in his ear.

Literally _in_ his ear, because he had his headset on already.

"Y-yeah?" he asked, confused. He wasn't sure what this could be about and that tone of voice didn't sound altogether…professional.

"I'll miss you terribly."

Although the voice was soft and gentle, he sensed the teasing tone behind it and laughed. "Thanks," he grinned, leaning against a cold iron pillar and staring off into space. (Soon that would be literal, too.) "But don't be sad, I'll be back before you know it. And whenever you get lonely just look up at the sky, and remember that your hero's up there watching over you."

There was a snigger on the other end. "Alright, that's enough. You were looking a little awkward so I thought I'd cheer you up, but now I see you were just upset about missing out on giving a corny goodbye speech. You were just jealous of everyone else."

"What? No way! Look at these guys – all _sad_ because they're going into freaking space! Isn't this what they _wanted_? If they were gonna be that sad to go then don't go! Or don't have a wife and kids!"

"Jones," the voice said, sounding reproachful. "They can't all be prodigies and make it this far so young like _some _of us." Alfred grinned, never too modest to have people praise him. "Were they supposed to stay lonely their whole lives for the sake of their work?"

"I guess not," Alfred sighed, feeling slightly petulant at the lecture. "This is just pissing me off. Why can't we go already?"

"Don't worry, love, you'll be off soon enough. Would you like to bet that you'll be happy to come home again?"

"What? No way! I'd stay up there forever if they'd let me!"

"Oh, but you can't deprive the Earth of a hero like yourself. The world would be a poorer place without you."

"Alright, who is this?" Alfred smirked, looking around the pad. Of course, it was unlikely to be anyone here; it was probably someone in the control room watching him over a camera.

"I don't know any British guys," continued Alfred, glancing around at the many cameras in the area, as if one of them would turn into a TV and reveal the person watching him from the other side. "You are British, right? That accent..."

"Never you mind," the voice said, with the air of a parent reproaching a troublesome child. "Let's just say that I know you but you don't know me. But then again, who doesn't know _you_, Jones?" the voice added, and Alfred was sure of it this time – the voice was practically purring at him. Was this person really trying to flirt with him when he was about to leave on an18 month-long mission? Surely he was just joking, right? But if so, why was it making Alfred's chest feel a little lighter.

"Do I get to find out who you are when I get back?"

"Hmm?" the voice hummed teasingly, obviously feeling some small triumph for having Alfred suggest that he might look forward to coming back. Alfred decided not to comment or deny anything. "Maybe. If you've been a very, _very_ good boy while you're away." That voice was the definition of sultry, and Alfred wasn't even totally sure what sultry meant. He just knew it was exactly like this.

"Dude, seriously?" laughed Alfred.

Once again, he pitied the other astronauts around him. They had their families to worry about, but what he had – this freedom and casual, ridiculous flirting – was so much better.

~ ~ The Voice ~ ~

Alfred and his team were six months in to their mission and he and The Voice had been talking the whole time.

Not every waking moment, of course, but when Alfred was alone, when he wasn't too busy, then The Voice would appear and they would chat. About meaningless, trivial things but The Voice had a captivating personality behind it – interesting, passionate, intelligent, and sexy as hell if that those innuendos and the half-joking seductive whispering were anything to go by. The accent probably helped a bit, but certainly by now Alfred knew it wasn't just the way The Voice drew out those "aaah"s and the way it said "dirty" (which was alarmingly frequent, as if The Voice knew how much Alfred liked to hear that word in particular).

Once again, Alfred felt he was luckier than the other astronauts for what he had. Their families sent them messages, sure – but could they speak to them almost every day like Alfred did with The Voice?

Today, they were talking about the future.

"I always wanted to do an epic tour of the States. Really _see_ everything, you know?" Alfred was saying as if he fiddled with a piece of machinery he was sure he could improve but which he had been instructed to leave well enough alone. "I fucking love my country, and I want to get to know every inch of it."

"Hmm." The Voice replied. "Sounds…bloody awful if you ask me."

"Well, I didn't _ask_, I _told_ you. But fine, if you're gonna be such a racist against the country you _live_ in and who was kind enough to _employ_ you, then you're not invited."

There was a pause, and though Alfred was focused on his work, his bizarrely close emotional attachment to The Voice made him stop what he was doing. "Dude?" (He didn't know this person's name, they refused to say, so he had to call him 'Dude'. Which had almost been enough to get The Voice to admit his real name.) "I don't really think you're a racist. Although it _does_ make you sound like a douche when you diss my country like that."

"Ah? N-no…" The Voice mumbled, and Alfred stopped his work entirely. "I was just…Um, nothing."

"I meant it that you can come with me, you know," Alfred said, standing up and making his way towards a little window. He looked out at the view he tried so determinedly to commit to memory: a small softly glowing blue ball, so, so fragile looking out here surrounded by the deep, eternal darkness.

"I want you to," he added, voice growing softer by the minute. It was nice having someone to say these things to, even if it was partially for fun. He didn't know how he really felt about this person, and was sure The Voice didn't mean all the things he said, either. It was a game, but a dangerous one. A tricky one. Alfred could very well lose himself to it, he was sure. Or trap The Voice and hurt him, knowingly. He felt it happening already, and was worried to realise that he was doing nothing to stop it.

"Y-you don't really mean that," said The Voice, sounding more lost and unsure of itself than Alfred had ever heard, despite the fact that this was a fairly tame conversation for them today. "You don't actually know me. You don't have to talk about afterwards. We can just…chat now."

"Well, I'm not gonna ditch you when I get back," the young astronaut said, though something in his head was screaming at him for being stupid. The Voice was giving him a way out, admitting it was just a game and Alfred didn't have to follow through. Why make things worse now by offering all these things? It was giving in to the game. Is that what he wanted?

Whatever the case, he found that he just couldn't stop talking – for better or worse, he would have to wait and see. "We haven't met, and I don't know who you are. Before this, you were just one of the other guys working at NASA I never would have thought about. But I've liked talking to you up here, why wouldn't I like talking to you down there?"

"Because down here you could choose to talk to someone else."

Alfred frowned. This low self-esteem wasn't like The Voice. It sounded ridiculous on him.

"Dude, you don't know what you're talking about. Honestly, you sound like an idiot right now." Alfred knew that The Voice could handle a little tough love, so he didn't need to censor himself. "This isn't you. I don't know you in person, but I know what you really are, and this isn't it. I want Dude back. Whatever's bugging you just get the fuck over it."

A long pause. "I can do that. …You don't make it easy, though."

"Me? What'd I do?"

"Urgh," The Voice groaned, and the conversation drifted back to the more familiar, but no less turbulent, realm of film.

~ ~ The Voice ~ ~

"Are you sure no one can hear us?"

"I've told you a thousand times, Major, I turn the recording off every time we speak. I don't want all our conversations noted down anymore than you do!"

"Dude, so unprofessional and dangerous. You sound like you really shouldn't be working for NASA. No offense."

"None taken."

"Hey!" A sudden realisation struck Alfred. He paused as he worked through it in his mind, and The Voice interrupted with an impatient "What?"

"Did you always wanna talk to me? Like, the whole time I was down there? You were just too nervous to make a move so you waited till you had my ear all to yourself, and I couldn't try and figure out who you were?"

There was a long, very revealing pause.

"Dude, that's…" The implications suddenly hit Alfred with full force. It felt like a smack to the face.

He had been flirting all this time with someone who really wanted to hear it from him. He'd been treating it like a game, and The Voice let him believe it was, but really, it meant a lot more to The Voice than that. Alfred could really, really hurt him…

"Dude, I…I want to meet you."

There was a gasp in his ear, and then a groan which was quickly cut off. Like The Voice had started to make the sound and then clapped a hand over his mouth, or tore off his headset completely.

"I'm serious. I mean, it's not going to make up for me having to come back, but…it gives me something to look forward to. Something that will make me feel better after having to go back to…to all that. It's gonna be hard after having this…"

One of those rare long pauses. They didn't let themselves talk about these things very often. "I'll be here."

"Can you be there waiting for me? Right there. Looking for me."

"I'll be right here."

Alfred sniggered, and could almost hear the shock in the silence in his ear.

"Alfred. F. Jones. What is – "

"Dude, sorry! Just…E.T. reference."

"You _wanker_, Jones!"

~ ~ The Voice ~ ~

Today, Alfred was not feeling so superior to his team. And today, it felt like it really counted.

They knew what was waiting for them. For the rest of their lives. They were about to walk out there, be reunited with their families – people who loved them, who they already loved in return, going back to a home they had built, with a future that was full of promise and happy memories waiting to happen.

Alfred was about to walk out there and not know what to do with the rest of his life. Back to his lonely apartment, that would just feel lonelier now: because it wasn't the place he was leaving behind anymore, it was the place he had to go back to and stay in. Sure he would keep working for NASA, and his career would no doubt be satisfying but…the things he'd always dreamt about were already over. What a long life he had ahead of him, he suddenly realised.

And back to…well not 'back to' because he hadn't had it before – but 'back to' The Voice.

Now he would have to decide if he wanted it or not. He still didn't know which it would be, and the thought terrified and disgusted him. He was going to have to make this decision _on the spot_, as if it didn't matter at all – and yet this decision could make or break The Voice he cared about so much.

Take a chance on something he might not actually want, just to make someone else happy? Or look like a total douche and take back everything he'd been saying over the past year like it had been nothing?

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realise what was going on as a bunch of children ran towards him, his teammates ran forwards, and suddenly there were families hugging all around him, all over again. Only this time they were happy and he was…well, feeling awkward again.

Oh. That meant that they were back. That meant that this was the place where their loved ones would be waiting for them. That meant that The Voice would be…

Alfred looked up as realisation finally dawned on him.

And saw a man standing by himself, right in front of him.

It was like looking at The Voice. Technically, it was looking at the owner of the voice, but to Alfred it was like The Voice had suddenly taken a physical form, and this is exactly what it would look like, he realised.

Short and slim: because The Voice was graceful. Soft, blonde, but shaggy hair: because of his constant failed attempts to control his temper and act like a gentleman. Contrasted with thick, dark eyebrows: that proud, wilful attitude of his. Green, green eyes: he had always been entrancing. A handsome face: The Voice was so, so beautiful. Inside and out, across all his senses, it was The Voice.

Alfred felt like laughing, the man's appearance was so perfect.

The Voice looked uncomfortable, as if all that flirting, openness and sweet talk was suddenly coming back to him and hitting him full force. Alfred found it incredibly endearing.

For all The Voice's bravado and stubbornness, he was really a pretty vulnerable guy. Of course, Alfred knew that already. He knew everything about this man.

And he loved it.

_Of course_, he laughed inwardly to himself. It was so obvious now that he was standing right here. Now that The Voice was something he could touch and hold he knew he didn't want to let it go.

He had been worrying for nothing. Flirting with the voice and making empty promises, just in case when he arrived back on Earth The Voice turned out to be somebody he didn't like that much and Alfred had to turn him down.

But that was the point, wasn't it. Alfred _knew_ The Voice. He _loved_ The Voice. Being separate from each other had made him think that he didn't know the real person behind it – they could be _anyone_ – so he worried that he would be let down…but he was so wrong. The Voice wasn't different to the person: they were one and the same. And Alfred loved The Voice. So he already loved this person.

The astronaut smiled to himself, realising that once again, he was still luckier than everyone else around him. He had gotten to know the person he loved before he even met them. How easy that made things. How exciting.

Alfred walked towards the shorter man until they were really much too close. It wasn't natural, unless Alfred planned to do something that the surrounding children really didn't need to see.

"Tell me your name."

"A-Arthur. Arthur Kirkland. I've been working here for three years. I met you the day I started and – "

"Arthur," Alfred breathed out, raising his hand and slowly, experimentally, touching the other on the forearm to still his jittering, as Arthur fiddled with his hands to avoid eye contact.

Arthur jumped and looked up at him with big, green eyes, and big, raised eyebrows.

_Oh, yes_, smiled Alfred, ghosting his hand up Arthur's neck, brushing fingertips from his cheek to his temple, until he was cupping the man's head through his soft, fair hair. If The Voice, that voice that made him feel so good, who liked him, who cared about him, who cheered him up and made him laugh and think and try harder and work things out – if that voice was a real person then Alfred wanted him. Always.

"Take me home with you."

* * *

><p>AN:

I did some brief research about where and how families say goodbye to their loved ones. But I could find nothing about where/how they _greet_ them again. Hopefully this isn't too far off…

Alfred comes off as a bit of an arrogant douche perhaps – flirting with The Voice without really intending to go through with any of it if he decides he doesn't like the real person. But he realised the error of his ways. And I assure you he _won't_ do it again.

He will apologise to Arthur later for being a bit of a player: flirting, but not knowing for sure whether he wanted to be with The Voice when he got back to Earth – but Arthur forgives him, because he knows Alfred couldn't base such an important decision on a voice alone.

The last line gave me some trouble. It should probably be something like "I'm home" or "You win the bet! You said I wouldn't be happy to come back" or something cheesy like that. But when I wrote it, _this_ is what flowed out of my fingers on to the keyboard. Yeah, it makes Alfred look a bit whorish...(He does know how to give a good time, though, as you know if you've seen the outtakes from the dubbed movie.) But really, Alfred and Arthur have been in love for almost a year and a half, and have barely even met each other. Are they really going to drive off to different houses at the end of the day today? No, they want to be together. And I will let them. Even if Alfred comes off as easy.  
>Also, he doesn't consider his apartment his home. Earth is barely his home, either: he prefers space. But if Arthur is there, it feels like it can be his home. He can be happy here, if he is with Arthur.<p>

(Also, I realise NASA no longer does these missions, but…fuck it.)


End file.
